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First off many of us have no true idea, I can ball park it, but it doesn't really matter. I have a hard time seeing the relevancy of trying to figure out when I was infected or do I wish I could go back change something or who infected my. The fact still remains I am HIV+ and choose to learn from my past, appreciate who it has made me and move on with the business of living.

Woods

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"Let us give pubicity to HV/AIDS and not hide it..." "One of the things destroying people with AIDS is the stigma we attach to it." Nelson Mandela

LIFE is not a race to the grave with the intention of arriving safelyin a pretty and well-preserved body, but, rather to skid in broadside,thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming--WOW! WHAT ARIDE!!!

I can't even remember the year of my diagnosis, 2003? 2002? I do rememebr when I got my reslt I was in a rush to get back to work and the health visitor thrusting an orange folder ("HIV & YOU") into my hand was kinda annoying me.

I know the date and time: December 16, 1989 at 10:16 PM. The rubber rolled off and that's a shoot...a big one! My first reaction was where the hell is it (the condom not the shoot)? Three weeks later the flu and the rest...

I think Thanksgiving weekend 2003. Converted between Christmas and NewYears (Never been so sick) Recovered and then found out on Ground Hog's Day 2004 (2/2/04) Been three years now. Something like the movie, I wish I could wake up and it was all a dream!

Based on risk behavior, I had to have contracted HIV (and HEP C) no later than June or July of 1980, which is when I cleaned up my act, and probably earlier. I had deposited my intelligence in and on a speedball binge that lasted from late 1979 until the summer of '80. I recall having what may have been thrush, for which my doctor prescribed monistat tablets to suck on like lozenges. He was puzzled, needless to say, and it was assumed that I had gotten a yeast infection by going down on the wrong woman. It cleared up and I stayed asymptomatic. In 1988, after reports of long term non-progressors became more frequent, I was tested at the NYC Health Dept. clinic on Ninth Avenue. As with all of us, I recall the day that they gave me the results as if it were yesterday.

It may not be coincidental that my Hep c strain is type 4, the so-called "north african" or"egyptian" strain.

I always place it in 1986 because of an obviously unprotected and pretty rough sexual encounter with a "bad boy". But who knows, maybe it was a year or two earlier because I was dating a lawyer who died of aids at a later date. If it was him, he probably didn't know it himself. He was a very nice person. Too bad he was cut short of his life because meds were so limited back then.

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Catman

Meow to the birdsMeow to the tree'sMeow to the endof this dreadful disease...

IHaveHope: "To get an idea as to how long someone has been living with HIV."..................................Interesting.....what I am seeing in the numbers isnt how long we have lived or not but how many people are here from different years. Looks to me like a bunch of recently infected folks and a bunch of folks infected for a long time.

IHaveHope: "To get an idea as to how long someone has been living with HIV."..................................Interesting.....what I am seeing in the numbers isnt how long we have lived or not but how many people are here from different years. Looks to me like a bunch of recently infected folks and a bunch of folks infected for a long time.

Well Bear, If you want to over-analyze my thread you are probably right this poll doesn't determine how long people live with HIV. What I did learn though is that people who do visit poz.com are mostly people infected in the early to mid 80's and recently infected. Is this info gonna help me or anyone? Maybe not, but it didn't hurt to ask. There were a few people who didn't know an exact year when they were infected but overall most people have an idea. Personally it helps me know that there are many people who visit this site who have lived with it for 20 plus years therefore the information I may read in many forums are from people who can give effective advice. If the results would have came out where most people who voted on the poll were recently infected then I would base it on recent experiences. But I think the poll so far has shown a large number of those who survived pre-HAART visit the site. Maybe when the poll reaches 100 votes we can have a clearer number, and again this will not contribute to any important statistical study.

I was diagnosed December 1995. The worst Christmas I've ever had. I had acquired syphillis and while being treated for it my doctor decided to do an AIDS test and voila, it was discovered that I was hiv+.

I tested Pozitive shortly after the test became easy to get. I was having swollen glands so my doctor tried many tests and finally did the HIV test. I was Pozitive. It was another year before they knew what my counts were. Since 1986 my T-cell count has been above 400 only twice even though my viral load has varied alot. The last three years it has been mostly undetectable. Otherwise, I have continued on with life and worked continuously even through a wasting period. Hope all of you are doing well. Joel

As someone who has always had his dancecard filled, I can tell you that I know that I got infected during some of my sluttier years, perhaps between 1996 to the present. Because although I did practice safer sex most of the time, it was apparently not good enough. Where was Ann when I needed her?

P.S. I wish that those that find threads a "waste of time" would just not post, because then you waste your time and ours.